Ghost Fleet Septimus
by defiasstone2
Summary: In the wake of Hive fleet Behemoth, much is told of the heroic sacrifices of the Ultramarines chapter, the battle of Maccrage and the many heroes associated with it. However, these were not the only heroes of the tyrannic war, countless systems were consumed in the path of the hive fleet before it was finally stopped. This is the tale of one such system and its survivors
1. A Council of War

Persona: Vice Governor Aquila

_My name is Aquila, once Vice Governor of the Merdythia system in the Ultramar Sector. I use the word once because according to the most recent of Imperial Calendars that we have found on our travels all the planets in that system have been lifeless hulks for the best part of a century, destroyed in the advance of the terrible xenos fleet Behemoth, the foul tyranid's on the path to their own destruction at the Ultramarines own planet of Macragge, where it was destroyed under the assault of the Imperial navy, the Ultramarines own fleet and even the mysterious eldar. Due to my actions during the apocalyptic campaign as well as our unfortunate cursed existence, I was branded a traitor along with all those who served under me._

_The reasoning was that I evacuated the sparsely populated planets of Uqinox and Sythcia rather than standing and fighting to the last, therefore going directly against the orders of my superior, the Governor of the system, a corrupt and lazy individual by the name of Voss. We managed to save over 5 billion men and women, nearly half of whom were civilians, spiriting them away on board of the transport vessels and battleships of Battlefleet Septimus, which was under the command of Admiral Quarrus, a man who had faced the foul xenos before and agreed with my idea of asset denial, with each and every person we saved, we denied the hive fleet mass with which to continue its advance into imperial space._

_I went a step further, and was prepared to perform the ultimate tactic of asset denial, when my trusted guardsmen knocked me unconscious and sent me on the last transport to the fleet, even as the hive fleet arrived in its full and devastating glory. We fled into the warp, our astropaths screaming as they did so, their mystical third eye bleeding and weeping pus as they attempted to pierce the warp shadow the tyranids cast in front of their advance._

_I woke just in time to receive the feed of the unmanned sensor ship's vid feeds, showing the millions upon millions of hive spores rocketing towards the planet I grew up on, and had been prepared to die for. I am told that the death of the planet caused significant damage to the hive fleet, though the fact that my home is now little more than clumps of rock and space dust does little to make me feel at all proud of the damage._

_The fact that billions upon billions of men women and children died when they were under my protection did not lead for those that are on the ships do not hate me for what I have done. Instead they view me as their saviour, saving their lives so that they may continue fighting the dreaded enemy in the emperor's name. My name is now Commander-General Aquila of Ghost fleet Septimus, and this is the tale of how we gained our title._

Chapter 1: They are Coming.

A Shadow across the warp, a thousand chattering voices in unison, casting their presence before them. That is how our Astropaths and sanctioned psykers described the approaching xenos fleet. It approached at a ponderous but relentless rate, smashing aside system defences like a hammer upon glass.

We had of course, received visual and verbal reports from the wide eyed survivors and refugees on the few transport ships that managed to survive the terrors of the warp travel to our system, speaking of dread horrors in the night, and an endless rain of flesh and bone from the sky that blotted out suns and hives with almost unbelievable ease.

My superior and ruler of the Merdythia system Governor Voss, in accordance with his increasingly bizarre and lazy lifestyle invoked the emperor's name, stating that each and every man over the age of 18 was to enlist in the militia and prepare to defend their system from the blasted xenos, before sequestering himself in his quarters with his personal advisors, claiming he was doing 'important work' and was not too be disturbed no matter what.

This of course left the defence of the system in my hands and that of the three administrators, Kell, Jarren and Osthio. After a meeting amongst ourselves we decided that there was no other choice, we would have to hold a full war council for the first time in the history of the Merydithyia sector, and reveal onto them the true threat of what we were facing.

I sat patiently at the head of the large dark marble table as I waited for the rest of the council to arrive. The administrators sat on my right, as they always had, and soon the head of the noble factions arrived. These men could change quite quickly if careless, so it was not surprising that each brought a squad of bodyguards that had to wait outside of the massive conference chamber, under the watch of my own personal bodyguard platoon.

At exactly two minutes before the meeting was scheduled to begin, Colonel Kergis of the 1st Merdythia Corps arrived, flanked by Lieutenants Rodgers and Santez, his captain aides. The Colonel was a tall stocky man, just like many of our hivers, whilst Rodgers was a slender blonde female in her early 30's, from the planet of Scythia, and Santez was small and unassuming man, though I am assured he is a dangerous man with either lasgun or sword in hand.

Just behind them were Lieutenants Derosa and Baird, from the fledgling 2nd corps. Derosa sent me an apologetic look which I assumed was due to the lack of their commanding officer, which didn't really surprise me, as he was deep in Voss's pocket so had probably ignored my summons. The Colonel and Derosa sat too my right, the aides and Baird standing behind them, obviously the two had decided who was going to face me, probably by drawing the tarot or some other ridiculous game of chance.

As the scheduled time appeared on my chrono, the doors of the conference room opened for what would hopefully be the last time, admitting the tall and imposing figure of Admiral Quarrus, the pale and gangly voidborn man in charge of Battle fleet Actimus, that had been fighting hit and run actions against the advancing fleet for almost a year now, always with the habit of arriving exactly on time to a meeting, no matter whether or not he could have got there any earlier, evidenced by the fact he had spent the afternoon with me in my private quarters, the two of us reminiscing over old cases of smugglers and pirates rather than the monstrosity approaching us.

However, this time his figure was eclipsed by the much bulkier figure in pitch black power armour that walked in behind Quarrus and the smaller, feminine figure that walked in behind the space marine with an air of authority that I had not seen from anyone other than the fabled adeptus astartes Space marines that I had occasionally had dealings with during my time as vice governor.

I stood hastily, my eyes drawn to the skull like insignia on the shoulder pad of the power armoured figure. The nobles had also noticed the sign and stood, bowing to the space marine whilst I instead bowed to the young woman who was still stood with Quarrus, knowing that the Inquisitor had sent the power armoured figure in first for this exact reason.

"Inquisitor, I had no idea that any of the Inquisition had any interest in our system, shall I alert Governor Voss for you? He is probably the most suitable to help with your enquiries" My actions drew a small smile from the female as she shook her head, her blonde hair swaying lightly at the motion, and she reached up with a dainty hand to move the errant locks back into place.

"There will be no need to inform this Voss person, Admiral Quarrus informed me that you had called this council, so therefore it is you, Vice-Governor Aquila that I am interested in." The nobles had worked out that they had been bowing to the wrong person, and all three tried to apologise graciously, cause the inquisitor to frown slightly before waving her hand imperiously.

"Quiet! Now, be seated, the faster this meeting begins, the faster we can take action." She turned her head towards the power armoured figure "Ios, if you could wait outside and make sure that no one else disturbs us?" The figure half nodded then paused as if realising what the instruction meant and spoke hurriedly.

"Are you sure my lady? I don't know if I should leave you al…" the woman's eyes narrowed and the newly named Ios stopped hastily, which I noticed with some interest. "Of course my lady, your will be done." He stomped back to the doors, his heavy footfalls punctuating the cracking of the delicate floor tiles beneath his feet.

As the doors closed, the Inquisitor sat down at the far end of the table, directly in front of me. "Whenever you are ready governor, time is lives now." Her voice now contained a underflow of something that I couldn't identify, but I shook it off and nodded.

"As you have all no doubt heard, a massive and terrible xenos fleet approaches our sector and despite the most gallant efforts of our navy, we seem to be unable to stop it with our available forces." I waved my hand towards the table in front of the council, and a three dimensional view of our sector appeared, courtesy of a techpriest waiting on the edge of the room watching my every move.

"This is our sector, this is our home. I have come up with a plan for the defence, but it focuses mainly on the defence of Merdythia itself, as the other two planets are too scarcely populated to form a reasonable defence." It was interesting I noticed, to see how little reaction Rodgers gave to the news of her planet being abandoned. Regardless I continued on with my directions, I could wonder about the man at a later point if I got some time to myself

"Admiral, would it be possible to transport the populations of those planets to here? Give us more men to fight with against the enemy?" Quarrus nodded after a moment of thought, which was hardly surprising as we had discussed the idea before, though he was noticeably nervous of the Inquisitor at the end of the table, with good reason I thought harshly, the Inquisition were never good news to anyone they met with.

"Aye, though it would take time, maybe two weeks to get the word out and get them gathered, and another week to get them boarded, but it's certainly feasible." I nodded "good, now let us find out what we have to fight the enemy with, Colonel Kergis?" The man nodded and stood

"As of muster today, we have 500,000 infantrymen fully trained and ready to fight. In total we have almost a million true guardsmen and 1.5 million conscripts that have just finished their required training, including administration and command aides. Our ammo is well stocked and we have a full quota of heavy weapons and mortars, with crews ready and trained to use them. Our sentinel numbers are below the required amount due to difficulties in production in the last quarter. Our other mechanised units are fully prepared however, meaning we have nearly 10,000 leman russ tanks, and a 1000 basilisks ready and functioning."

He took a breath, his face red with the constant stream of words before he continued. "Our auxiliary units consist of almost 300,000 men and women from the two outlying planets, with another 500,000 people on those planets that have done conscription in the last 10 years, so will be able to fight effectively as well. Lastly we have 400 lightning hawk fighters, 200 marauder bombers and 4,000 valkyries make up our air support."

He sat, looking quietly pleased with himself as Derosa stood uncertainly, drawing herself up and repeating something to herself silently several times before beginning to speak nervously, causing me to arch an eyebrow. Had I really made myself out to be that much of a bogeyman that the guardsmen were nervous of my response to their expected subpar report?

"My lords, as of this morning, we have 650,000 men and women as part of our infantry platoons, mainly made up of underhivers, so they are experienced but undisciplined. Our conscription quotas were reduced by 30% by Colonel Volander, who claimed it would help save fuel and ammunition from training the recruits. The training itself has been sporadic, as Volander prefers to focus on drill and parade form rather than fighting prowess." She shivered slightly under my unwavering stare and I couldn't help but feel slightly sorry for her, having only been in a position of command for three months, it was natural that she was feeling the strain of such a difficult position.

Baird stepped in, obviously trying to save their corps pride. "Our Equipment is all well maintained and due to the lack of training, we have enough surplus heavy weaponry to fit 5 additional heavy weapons companies and their infantry attachments. Our Vehicles have been maintained by myself and our cadre of tech priests, and I can offer our full complement plus 100 extra leman Russ's, twenty leman russ vanquishers and 1 shadowsword super heavy tank." I will admit, that is the first piece of information that I hadn't known of as I walked in, and I could see I wasn't the only one. Kergis looked outraged but before he could build up sufficient fury to start one of his parade ground rants the Inquisitor spoke up in a serious but still polite manner that had my back hairs rise.

"It is evident your superiors didn't know of these developments Lieutenant, why did you keep it to yourself?" Baird looked a little abashed, but kept his head high as he started to explain his actions. "Governor Voss decreed that the Shadowsword tank, which was badly damaged during the taking of this planet almost 10 millenia ago, should be left as it was as proof of the emperors power rather than repaired so that it could be used once more. So if I had told anyone I would have just ended up on charges and the thing melted down or worse."

I nodded, it sounded like the type of ridiculous law Voss would pass when I wasn't looking or from before I rose to my current position of power. I decided that such risky behaviour needed to be rewarded for the prize we were presented with. "In this case, your ingenuity is a boon to us Lieutenant, I assume you must have had the sacred blueprints to the machine in order to repair it?"

Baird nodded unsurely, not following my line of thought, and it was evident by the raised eyebrows in the room that he wasn't the only one. The inquisitor again was the one to ask the question "Why do you ask Governor, what is your plan?" I grinned, and motioned again, the screen changing to that of Merdythia prime, the main hive on the planet.

"This will be the easiest point to defend, and therefore will be where we shall fight the aliens to a standstill when they do attack. We have heard of the rain of spores in the reports, to counter this, we shall concentrate our AA protection to here." I motion and a 10 km boundary around the hives outer walls appeared.

"This will mean the enemy will attack the hive walls on foot, and therefore have to pass our brave men and women, and the true strength of the imperial guard, our formidable quantity of firepower that we can lay down against them." I looked over at the nobles pointedly before speaking to the directly for the first time. "Vectis, your districts are too switch to the production of AA guns, emplacements and ammo, including the two factories currently producing weapons for your milita, don't think I don't know what the production figures should be."

The tallest of the nobles looked shocked and angry that I had discovered his ploy, but I moved on too swiftly for him to protest. "Ajax, you are too switch to producing heavy weapons, we must have superior firepower to stop them reaching the hive itself! Also you are too co-ordinate with Baird and his tech priests in producing some more shadowswords, if we can produce even half a dozen more, they shall be more than worth the effort."

I turn to the last of the nobles, a recent rising star that I didn't know as well as the others who had led his house to the top by toppling a succession of steadily more prominent houses through inter house wars and under the table dealings after his fathers death at the hands of a rivals assassins. "Davies, you are to produce the weapons and ammo that will be required to arm our citizens, they shall fight with us against this threat." Davies nodded and looked over to Kergis "Colonel, I have 500 militia men that are armed, trained and ready to fight. They know their way round the hives and excel at close quarters."

Before anyone could comment on the unknown precedent that the noble had set, Davies turned back to me. "I will also order the opening of our house warehouses and armouries to you Governor, what is in there is currently unknown to me, having just recently taken the mantle of Head of my house, but I shall endeavour to have a rough estimate too you by tomorrow evening." This move by Davies was interesting to say the least and I couldn't help but grin at the looks on the other two nobles faces as I nodded my head.

"That is most generous of you Davies, this shall be remembered, now I ask that you start preparing you men and factories, we shall work out more detailed requirements soon, but first I must finalise the defence positions with the colonel." The nobles nodded, understanding my dismissal for what it was without any protest and stood quickly, heading out of the room hastily, stepping cautiously around the hulking power armoured man that stood in the entranceway.

As the doors closed again I took the liberty of leaning back in my chair slightly. "Well, none of them are panicking yet, that must mean that it has gone better than expected." To my surprise it was the inquisitor that laughed whilst Kergis frowned before speaking his concerns out loud to me and the table as a whole.

"That is true, though Vectis may still be trouble yet, he is not used to being out-politicked by you still, especially in front of the others." That thought sobered the mood once more and I nodded "true, but whatever he may plan, the xenos may beat him too it if we are not careful."

I leaned forward once more, determined to get the focus back onto the looming swarm of monstrosities bearing down upon us. "Now Kergis, speak to me of defence, administrators, speak to me of supplies and equipment."

Kergis paused for a moment before beginning "I suggest that we clear the land around the hive itself as much as possible, if the enemy has to charge us through open and level terrain they will be easier targets for our men to kill. We may want to consider a series of trenches for our guardsmen to fire from whilst our heavy weapons cover from the walls above." I nodded; it was a good plan to begin with.

Baird looked at the 3-d image, and then pointed at two sections of the wall. "These areas are poorly maintained, we will need to strengthen them, as well as the gates themselves, they are not built to withstand this kind of attack."

Derosa chimed in, seemingly more confident now that I hadn't shouted at her and Baird for their actions and those of her commanders. "Also the sewage gates will need to be blocked to stop infiltrators, we have heard rumours of assassin creatures in the underhives from survivors. It will be hard to find every exit from the hive, but I can have my men sweep the underhive after this council, ensure none of these creatures are already here." I had to give it to the two, they were more than enough to make up for the ineptness of their commander, it was a shame that I could not overrule Voss and have one of them made commander.

I nodded to Kergis. "Your men are to move out and bring as many of the peoples of hive Secondus and teritus here as possible, PDF members and gangers have priority, especially if they bring weapons and equipment, we will need every gun we can get." He nodded and whispered to Santez, who stood up and left silently, obviously to go and carry out that order.

Then, I turned my attention to the three Administrators, and as was typical of the three, Kell went first, being the most forward and talkative. "I have held in our starports the last two shipments of weaponry and equipment that were to be sent to the Agryppia crusade, which means we have a million suits of flak armour and enough weapons to probably make a third regiment of guardsmen."

I nodded, for all his pomp and proprietary Kell could certainly do his job, and that job was keeping me happy. Osthio summoned his courage, the adept much more used to just delivering his reports to me alone rather than in front of so many imposing figures.

"I, I have been checking our food stores during the meeting and calculating the incoming numbers of refugees, we have enough food for almost 3 months once the hive fleet cuts off our supplies from the agriworlds. In terms of medicine and other essentials, we are well stocked, a-and I have already ordered the guard to be tr-tripled around the silos and water pumps in case of rioters."

Jarren continued without a break, his strong and deep baritone voice a stark contrast to Osthio's stuttering and tremoring, the tech priest rumoured to have been trained on mars itself. "I have been in contact with the Arbites, they are preparing to begin culling the underhives of any mutant activity, we don't want to be fighting a war on two fronts. The Ecclesiarch are activating their militia, they should be ready in a week, and should be useful to throw back any intrusions into our city." I nodded, exactly what I had had planned, but the administrators had outdone themselves with their preparedness. "Excellent work, let it not be known that we are not unprepared!"

I looked over at the last resource that I had not already assigned, though this resource was the most unlikely to yield much use. "Inquisitor" I began, noticing the glint in her eyes even as she turned to me with a smile once more "Have you any more information on our enemy that may be of use to us in planning our defence, any help at this point will save innumerable lives." Her demeanour shifted slightly, her staring becoming piercing for a fraction of a second, before she lightened again and nodded.

"I will see what I can find out Governor, it is… refreshing to find a governor that is actually competent at what they are meant to do without complaint." I smirk, obviously I have made a good impression on her, and I decided to try and improve that impression with my last words in the conversation.

"In the duty of the emperors service, there is no need for complaints, after all, the service is a reward unto itself is it not?" that grabbed her attention, it was a quote from some famous space marine chaplain during the first Armageddon war, she was obviously surprised that I knew it well enough to repeat it back word for word to her.

Her grin increased, but there was a wary glint in her eye as she stood, which made me more suspicious of her reasons for being here, especially as she still had to mention what that reason was. "Very well Governor, I leave you to you work, I imagine you have lots to prepare." She strode to the doors and pushed one open.

As she did so, the tall figure of a vindicare assassin appeared out of the shadows, pistols drawn and ready whilst the characteristic long rifle was on his back, easily in a position to be drawn if needed. The door closed once more and I waited for a moment before the head of my guards nodded, signalling that they had left and I turned to Quarrus.

"Are the Mortis missiles ready?" Quarrus nodded, some of his confidence returning now that they were out of the threat of the Inquisitors presence. "They have been moved into place, but Aquila, this is a suicidal plan you have enacted, and I'm sure that the inquisitor suspects something is amiss if you take her last words as they are."

I shrugged lightly as if disregarding the threat. "My duty is to the Emperor, and the people that I govern, and if I can save even a few of them from Voss's madness at the cost of my life so be it. The Inquisitor can suspect all she wishes, but by the time she finds out, it will be far too late, I factored her arrival in well in advance."

I had known of the approach of an inquisitor to my sector for months, the classified vessel moving ever closer to my area of space was a giant warning if nothing else. It was easy to let her know of the safe parts of the plan whilst leaving out the rest. I gestured to the tech priest, ignoring the confused looks from the others present.

The visual of the system returned, and this time faint images of the tyranid hive fleet appeared through the system, moving slowly over the worlds of Scythia and Uqinox, whilst on the other side of their twin suns, Merdythia remained unassailed.

"From the reports that we have received, the swarm will not move from their path for a single world, it is more likely that they will send a couple of the smaller vessels to try and harvest our world before returning to the fleet. It is this that I plan on taking advantage of. By focussing the fleet near Merdythia, I plan to annihilate these two ships using our navy, which should cause the main fleet to return here."

A small portion of the swarm split off from the main swarm and headed round the sun to Merdythia, where they were suddenly removed. The mains swarm then paused, before turning and heading to the planet. Kergis coughed into his hand "How does this help us Vice-Governor, the fleet will have no chance against the main swarm."

I acknowledged that fact with a tight grin. "We did our duty, if this works it will slow the swarm by almost a year, giving the rest of the imperium time to organise a response, and besides…" Merdythia was turned into a miniature sun, engulfing a portion of the hive fleet "I always wanted to end my career with a bang."

There was stunned silence for a moment before Kergis laid back in his chair, exhaling slowly. "Well, I always knew you were mad, but this makes a surprising amount of sense. I assume that is what you meant by the Mortis missiles?" I nodded even as Osthio spoke up, voice more certain now the Inquisitior was gone, focussing on the numbers, as he always did in these situations.

"What are the number and size of warheads? Will help with damage calculations you see." He was already typing away as the others recovered. Kell spoke, slowly and thoughtfully. "You know, what you plan, could be considered treason against the governor. I assume you plan on evacuating our men beforehand, which is why you would keep the fleet so close. Such a move would not go down well at all with the governor."

I nodded "Which is why he must not know until it is too late, I will keep him distracted until it is impossible for him to act, don't worry about that." The assembled people nodded, and the meeting ended shortly without any more contention, leaving me alone in the ornate room. I waved out the serfs and techpriests, wishing for some short time to myself to reflect on the day.

I wandered slowly over to the southern facing wall, which contained several large tinted glass windows, each depicting a different Imperial saint that had something to do with the system. The centre piece was, as always, the one to grab my attention and draw me into walking over to it. It depicted one of the heroic space marines, an Ultramarine in shining blue armour, bedecked in the emperors light as it smote down one of the feral orks that had previously dominated the world and used the humans as slaves or prey.

As I stood there looking up at it, light poured through the window, a gap in the usually cloudy Merdythian weather, and I became awash with the various colours, a feeling of peace washing over me as it did so, a sign from the emperor I am sure, reaching out to reassure me that my idea was not against his will or taking his name in vain.

A moment later, a flicker of movement in the corner of my eye caught my attention and I spun round, hand reaching for the hilt of my sword, only to freeze when I found myself looking down the blade of a razor sharp sword, mere centimetres from my eye. Despite the fact that I could and probably should have drawn my own sword and knocked the blade away from its dangerous position, that wasn't so much the reason for my inability to move as was the person holding the blade, who spoke with a much harder and colder voice than I remembered.

"My mistress will be most… interested in your plotting behind her back. I did warn her of you Aquila, your charm will be the death of you someday soon, maybe even today depending on what else you are hiding from us..."


	2. The Return of the Inquisitor

Previously on Ghost Fleet Septimus:

_As I stood there looking up at it, light poured through the window, a gap in the usually cloudy Merdythian weather, and I became awash with the various colours, a feeling of peace washing over me as it did so, a sign from the emperor I am sure, reaching out to reassure me that my idea was not against his will or taking his name in vain. _

_A moment later, a flicker of movement in the corner of my eye caught my attention and I spun round, hand reaching for the hilt of my sword, only to freeze when I found myself looking down the blade of a razor sharp sword, mere centimetres from my eye. Despite the fact that I could and probably should have drawn my own sword and knocked the blade away from its dangerous position, that wasn't so much the reason for my inability to move as was the person holding the blade, who spoke with a much harder and colder voice than I remembered._

"_My mistress will be most… interested in your plotting behind her back. I did warn her of you Aquila, your charm will be the death of you someday soon, maybe even today depending on what else you are hiding from us..."_

Chapter 2: Return of the Inquisitor.

"Serah" I whispered, unable to drag my eyes away from the sapphire blue eyes of the systems most efficient and deadly assassin, who I had helped capture almost three years before, at the very real risk of my own life I might add. Forcing myself to concentrate I continued, finally dragging my eyes away from her own. "It's not my fault you know, you were the one that accepted the contract for my head. If it had been anyone else, you wouldn't be standing here threatening me now would you? I gave you a much lighter sentence than your employers, which considering you cost me my hand is very generous, even considering our past." I saw doubt and pain enter her eyes as I reminded her of the act she had undertaken in this self-same room on that dark thundery night.

The loss of my right hand was a closely guarded secret, if you account for the fact that amongst the still living only I, Serah and two Black Templar space marines know about the injury. It was one of the Black Templar space marines, a techmarine, crafted the bionic hand I have now in repayment for the recovery of several chapter relics I obtained from various pirates and smugglers in the system, including a full suit of Tactical dreadnaught armour. How the smugglers managed to procure it or even more importantly, what they planned to do with it, I have no idea nor did I wish to know. A moment later, her face lightened slightly and she nodded her head in acceptance.

"That is true, another time I owe you my life, though, from what you are planning, it sounds like I won't have time to repay your kindness." She shifted the sword away, bringing it down to her side, but not putting it away I noticed with morbid amusement. "I see this place hasn't changed since I left, though I see you had the battle scars covered over, including your hand. I was surprised by that when I entered with the mistress, bionic I assume?"

It was always unnerving for me to talk with Serah when she was 'on duty', the switch between hardened killer and the woman I knew from my childhood days and whose life I had now saved four times was so fast it wasn't recognisable if you didn't know about it. "Of course, I called in quite the favour to get it as well. And in regards to this place, why change what works? This is now the most efficient system outside of direct Ultramar space, and no space marines to boss me around either, which is always nice." I could see her trying to hide a smile at my over the top boasting, and I continued, happy to be around someone who wouldn't judge me on what I said or did for the first time in almost 20 years.

"Would you like some wine? Or are you desperate to go and report my deception to your new mistress?" She laughed, the light tone completely unbecoming of her current dress, an armoured bodysuit covered in knives and explosives that I knew she could use expertly at a moment's notice, and despite myself I found myself smiling back.

"Always the gentleman rogue you are Aquila, I must say I did miss that part of you whilst I was imprisoned in those nice cells you no doubt had a hand in me being cloistered in. Mistress Clythia is kind to me though, far more than anyone else bar you of course would be. She trusts me as well, removed the collar and everything after our first two assignments." She gestured idly to her neck, the lack of the usual death collar worn by penal convicts something I hadn't noticed the first time I looked her over. The same death collar that had been defunct from the start on my order, not that she would know that. At the mention of the Inquisition I couldn't help the anger welling up inside of me, which was obviously plain to Serah as she placed a hand on my shoulder, gripping it gently.

"Do not judge her for Elihath's mistakes Aquila, not all of them turn out like he does." Images of flames, the screaming body of a woman, the grinning visage of a daemon, each of these flickered over my vision, and my fists tightened for a moment before relaxing into the knowledge that the man could only haunt me now, nothing more than that. I opened the bottle of wine on my desk, 50 year old wine from Kahtul VI, a prominent agri world with well-established black market links, for those of more refined tastes. Pouring myself a glass, I could feel rather than see Serah's yearning for one of her own, though I did not pour one, continuing instead. "If the Inquisitor is not as bad as I think Serah, will she agree with my plans then? You yourself can probably see the merit in them, will she?"

Serah shrugged "I have only been under her command for a few months; I cannot really say one way or the other. She does seem to be one of the more… open Inquisitors I have met , so she may well agree with the plans, after you are checked of course." The last part had been thoughtlessly added onto the end by Serah, though my eyes narrowed at the specific wording of it, there was something missing from this, more than an Inquisitor just checking on the systems defences against an alien assault. Serah noticed my expression and her eyes widened as she realised what she had said. Her sword was up once at my throat once more even as I asked the fundamental question with a level tone of one who knew he had discovered something, something that he would have been happy to leave buried for others to deal with.

"What haven't I been told Serah? Two assassins and a space marine, they seem odd companions to such a… dainty Inquisitor, and I imagine there are more on that vessel of yours, ready to pounce when required." A fear passed over her eyes as she shook her head, and I knew I had caught onto the real purpose to their being here.

"I cannot say, I am so sorry Aquila, but mistress is already going to punish me enough for my stupidity." I winced slightly in sympathy at the idea of her punishment. The Inquisition was barely more than a myth to the majority of the Imperium's citizens, the bogey men of the darkest under hives and mutant infested caverns.

I had been a member of one of the most brutal gangs in the hive in my youth before my interactions with Serah, and even I paled when I heard stories of those punished by the Inquisition, and my own past with Eliliath did nothing to lighten my view on the mysterious order. It did not take more than a few moments of thought to work out the most likely reason to why the Inquisition were here, now of all times, the offhand comment from Derosa being the one that finally put it in perspective for him. "The stalking creatures the refugees have been screaming about, they are already amongst us; aren't they? That's why you're here, to deal with those that make it to the upper hives." The sword trembled at my neck for a moment, and I thought Serah might actually thrust forward, her eyes glistening with sad tears that she barely held back with obvious effort.

"You know too much Aquila, I must call her back here now, the risk to the mission, it is too great to leave you unchecked." I nodded distractedly, there was no way I would have been able to survive if I disagreed, I only came out relatively intact last time due to my bodyguards and Servitors, both of which were too far away to help me in time, due to our current standing I wouldn't even reach my earpiece to activate them before she cut me down. More importantly, the idea of the creatures, amongst us, now, was mind blowing. What if one of those at the meeting had been infected? Luckily, I had put a ruse within a ruse in that regard, but regardless, it could ruin their defensive plans for the system if the fleet changed tactics.

"Would you like my sword?" I asked slowly as I collapsed into my desk chair, which was nearby, ensuring to keep my hands visible and state relaxed even as her sword followed, distance from my neck not changing in the slightest, reinforcing my wish to not antagonise her any further. She shook her head, reaching for her earpiece. "Mistress?" There was a pause for a moment, then Serah spoke hurriedly "I have Aquila here in the conference room; there is much that he needs to inform you of. He… He also suspects the true reason of our presence here." Another pause, this one longer, with Serah's face paling as it continued.

"Apologies Mistress, he knew how to distract me and I said something without thinking, and he deduced it from there. When he asked, I couldn't think… yes he is cooperating, he offered his weapons when this came up. 5 minutes? Yes mistress. Please, forgive me for this mistress. Yes mistress, over and out." With that she released the ear piece, sliding into the chair opposite, and sword point never wavering, even for a moment. I stayed sat upright, taking a drink, ensuring to swallow slowly to avoid a nick to the throat. Realising something, I spoke calmly. "If she is coming back, it is probably a good idea for me to tell my guards to stand down before they try and stop her from entering; I need every man I can get for the invasion after all." Her eyes were fixed on my own, and I could tell she was trying to detect whether there was any falsehood in them.

She nodded "Please don't do anything stupid Aquila, I would have to be… extreme in my response." The blade tip tickled my throat, almost as a reminder, but I couldn't resist "Me stupid? When has that ever happened in our relationship?" The comment managed to get a badly concealed smile out of her even as I went for my own earpiece. "Guards, the Inquisitor will be returning shortly, allow her and her acolytes entrance, and respond to her commands as if they were my own, aiding in securing the building if necessary against anyone, even the governor should he decide to approach."

The voice of Stefan, my head bodyguard, was the first to reply. He knew the plan, all of it, and as such the worry was obvious in his voice. We had both grown up in the same area, and he and most of my bodyguards were from the same gang I was, loyal to each other above all else. "But, boss, what if she…" I cut him off, glad of the man's loyalty if nothing else, but it was really not the time. "If she wanted me dead I would be, with or without your protection Stefan. She got two assassins into the meeting without us noticing, and we don't have much to hand that's good against space marines do we? Stand down and hope the Emperor is smiling on us." I could see Stefan nodding in my mind's eye having noticed the obvious discrepancy I had thrown in there to make it obvious why this was necessary. "So there's one in there with you now? Well, all I can do is wish you luck boss, the Emperor protects!"

I removed my hand, nodding at the sword in her hand "It is done, and is that really necessary, it's hard to drink to my imminent death with it stuck to my throat." She shook her head furiously, a strange cross between her two personas as she replied coldly but desperately. "I'm afraid not, I cannot be lenient, mistress will be angry enough as it is." After this, an awkward silence fell, the minutes ticking slowly by until suddenly, the doors crashed open, Ios storming in, flamer at the ready, his eyes scouring the room with the poise of a veteran of many dozens of battles.

Behind him stalked the Inquisitor, a small smirk appearing on her face as she spotted the two of us sat as we were me glass in hand drinking awkwardly whilst Serah had remained immobile, sword ready to strike me down in a moment. As the Vindicare jogged in, the doors slammed shut, as if pulled or pushed by an invisible force. The Inquisitor spoke, the smirk gone and her face piercing as she gazed at Aquila. "I'm glad to see that you at least have him guarded Serah, you can let him go now." Serah removed her sword, standing as she did so, sheathing it in a flash before moving hastily to kneel at the Inquisitors feet, head bowed.

"I am so sorry Mistress, please forgive me for my mistakes." The Inquisitor looked down, her face fixed in an angry frown that looked out of place on her, and stared at Serah, who spasmed in obvious pain a small cry exiting her lips, causing me to tighten my hand on the goblet until my knuckles turned white. My actions were obviously a point that did not go unnoticed by the Inquisitor as her eyes darted back to mine whilst Serah continued to moan in pain. "You are lucky that your past history means the Vice governor will be more cooperative if you are conscious and i cause you no more harm to you for your errors. You could have doomed us all with you thoughtlessness."

The Inquisitor looked away, back at me, as Serah collapsed, breathing raggedly in relief. I froze as she strode up to me, my few encounters with psykers were not enjoyable ones, and I had to resist raising my mental shields as high as I possibly could, choosing to let her in, any attempt to resist at this point may well get me killed. She reached me, reaching down with a manicured finger to my chin, gently bringing my face up to look into her own once more. "Are you scared of me now Governor? I promise if you are truthful, I won't hurt you any more than is necessary. If you lie, well, it won't be only you that suffers today."

Like a switch, the woman in front of me had transformed from the dainty and frail data gatherer, to the beautiful and deadly seductress. "Now, look into my eyes and try to relax, I will be gentle." My eyes locked with hers without a thought, and I mentally cursed the hold this woman had over me, even as I felt the first probe into my mind. She was surprisingly gentle, and if I hadn't experienced such mind probes before I would have not have noticed her presence. After almost a minute of trying not to blink, she broke the contact, a relieved smile on her face. "Very good governor, I thank you for your cooperation." She leaned forward, giving me a ghost of a kiss to my cheek, before turning to the others.

"He is clean; thank the emperor, though he seems highly receptive to my advances, surprising really considering his position." As out of it as I was, I noticed a smile of obvious relief on Serah's face at the Inquisitors announcement, before it was crushed ruthlessly into her business façade once more. A sudden weight on my legs brought me back to the real world as I was shocked to find the Inquisitor sat on my lap, and I imagine I was the only one shocked by the forwardness.

"Now I know you are not infected, perhaps you want to tell me of how you've been a bad boy? Either that or I can force Serah to tell me, doing so would make me angry, and you wouldn't want that would you?" The last part was punctuated by her drawing her fingernail down my cheek and across his jawline, making me struggle hard to resist shivering at the obvious threat against Serah. It took me a moment, and then I noticed that she was still in my head, lurking, ready to pounce at a moment's notice. Not fast enough however, as I raised my shields around the probe, enjoying the small look of shock on her face as I did so.

"Now you have finished your manipulations of me, you can remove your probe before I get angry myself." For a moment, she was defiant, the probe ramming into my shields with the force of an adamantium ram, both of us wincing in pain at the stress this cause. She backed off a moment later, nodding quietly.

"Very well, I will do so, as long as you tell me everything once I do, Serah will inform me if you do not, understand?" It was at that point I noticed the Vindicare's pistols aimed at my head from where he was stood, not trusting me even if his mistress had said to do so for the moment. Knowing that I had no choice now, I relaxed my shields once more, allowing her to withdraw, hands going up to catch her body as she slumped for a moment. She got off me, though not too quickly. Almost lingering longer than was necessary, which was interesting as the idea behind her staying there, was now pointless.

I leaned back, reaching for my glass once more and taking a swig, nodding at the assassin. "You might as well keep that pointed at me, will make killing me easier if your mistress doesn't like what I have to say. The plan is as thus, or at least, that's what everyone thinks…"

**A/N: It's a wrap, a short chapter to start fleshing out some of the characters that will be the focus of the plot. The next chapter will be more of the same I think, expanding on Serah's and Aquila's past and the horrors that have defined who they have become. Then we can get to the real grittiness of it all as cults, Genestealers and other enemies begin to rear their heads in advance of the main hive fleets arrival. I know that technically the Genestealers are credited with not appearing until the advance of hive fleet Leviathan, but I think that is an oversight on behalf of the GW/ the Imperium not realising the Genestealers were there, seeing how long Genestealers have been around and it definitely makes a good plot point for this story so I am keeping it.**


	3. Memories and Terror Unveiled

**Chapter 3: Memories and terror unveiled**

An hour later, I drew to a close, having revealed plot within ruse within plot, a set of manipulations so complex and subtle that the Vindicare had evidently lost place a while ago, and even Serah could be seen to be struggling. The Space marine hadn't reacted at all, helmet revealing nothing as to the workings of the mans mind.

The most interesting reaction was that of the Inquisitor's, who had sat forward in her seat, grinning brilliantly.

"Brilliant, I must say, the level of detail, the subtle magnificence of it all. You planned for pretty much every possibility. This must have taken years, before the swarm even appeared in colonised space… how did you know what to expect?" Aquila shook my head.

"That's the brilliance of it, I didn't expect anything, I knew that with our orbital repair stations, in the case of any major enemy incursion, from the eldar, the orks, and even this new threat, the sector fleet would congregate here to repair and re-equip. I made friends with both Quarrus and his predecessor, allowing them easier access to things, faster repair times and so on."

"The administrators and nobles are pretty much all behind me, Voss is known for his disdain for the noble elite after all, and stays in power due to his grip on the ecclesiarchy, both here and elsewhere in the sector. I've stocked every surplus weapon and piece of tech from the start of my time in power, just in case." I sat up, looking into the Inquisitor's eyes whilst lowering my shields once more.

"Look Inquisitor, I wish you to know that I tell the truth and I know from experience that you Inquisition types don't take someone at their word. I had no other ideas for the build-up, as tempting as it was to go deal with some of the more troublesome pirates at times." He could tell my offer impressed her by the slight widening of her eyes. After all, I had shown great dislike for her techniques, and the idea of her back in my head did still anger me, but he knew it would be necessary to prove my loyalty.

I felt her enter far more respectfully this time, and he showed her the same respect, opening my thoughts to her entirely, allowing her to wander at will through them and peruse at her leisure. He have no idea how long she looked, dragging me through memory after memory. It was then that she stumbled across the memory that I had long suppressed, flickers of it being the only thing that reminded me of that day.

*Flashback*

_It was dark, rain pattering lightly from the hive above, not the dangerous type that people had to remain indoors from, but that didn't mean it was particularly present. He ran, hot on the tail of his partner, whose speed and agility was always something he envied since they had met the year before. Ducking into one of the smaller alleyways they hid behind some of the rubbish and salvage placed there, seeing the guards of House Thalak run past, weapons out and ready. _

_He grinned, looking down at the data slates that they had been asked by their employer to retrieve, who had given them 300 thrones as a down payment, more money than he had ever had at one time in his life. Looking across at his accomplice he grinned cheekily. _

"_I told you it would work." A much younger Serah scowled back at him, her face scar free and remarkably beautiful for a under hiver. _

"_Just because you can charm yourself into any woman's pants doesn't mean I have to like you doing it Aquila, now let's get to the meeting point before we are late." _

_Aquila's face fell at that, he hadn't meant to hurt her feelings, she knew that he only did what he did so they could eat… or he hoped she did. They travelled to the meeting point in an uncomfortable silence, and by the time they arrived Aquila was cursing himself mentally, his hawk like mind and perceptive outlook had just cottoned on to the reason as to why Serah was so angry, but how he was to fix his mistake, he had no idea. _

_He was saved from the awkward moment, if only for a short while, by their arrival, which coincided with the arrival of their employer as well, a man in his mid-forties who walked with an air of authority they recognised as that that the nobles carried themselves round with most of the time, but he held none of their arrogance or pride. _

_Instead he seemed to exude knowledge and caution, the wrinkles and lines on his face betraying the worry of a man much older than he actually was. _

"_You have the data slates from the safe room?" Aquila nodded and stepped forward with the bag "We do, though they seem to be in some sort of a code, so I don't know what use they will be to you sir… now I want to see our money before we hand them over to you of course, not that I don't trust you, just a habit I picked up."_

_A dark voice from above cut in, and all three present jumped back, reaching for weapons as Aquila looked up to see the thing of his nightmares made manifest. _

"_That will not be necessary, for you all die here, especially you Inquisitor!" Then the darkened visage descended from rafters upon daemonic wings, and Serah screamed, Aquila screamed, there was so much screaming…_

_*Flashback end*_

I shot up in my seat, and would have headbutted the Inquisitor in the face had she also not recoiled violently from the memory.

"Aquila, what was that thing? How did you survive? Who was that man?" I shook my head to gather my thoughts, displeased that I was now coated in sweat which ran down my face from the mental exertions.

"That thing is a foul assassin whose name I dare not utter outside of a sanctioned chapel room lest its mention gather its attention and bring its gaze back upon my sector once more. The male who had hired me and Serah, his name I later discovered to be Inquisitor Elihath of the Ordo Hereticus, he is the reason that I am where I am now. He is also why I have a rather large distaste for those who hold your position, no offence Inquisitor." She looked round slightly nervously before motioning imperiously at the assassin once more who once more had his pistol out and raised.

"None taken, though what do you mean he is the reason that you are now in your position as Vice-Governor?"

"He survived the attack and managed to banish the thing back into the warp, at the cost of most of his acolytes that he had had based nearby and one of his arms. He then offered me and Serah lots of credits if we continued to work for him and provide him information. I accepted and Serah refused, and much to my regret that is where our current estrangement began, with Elihath erasing the memory of the night from her mind, thoroughly too if even you could not find it. After that, I began working for him, starting a group of informants and spies with the credits he gave me, and then if things needed stealing or procuring, I and Serah would do it, with me stating that I had received the job through my contacts."

Which was somewhat true he supposed even though he hated lying to the girl he had grown up with. He had tried to persuade Elihath several times to allow me and Serah to go their own way out of the Inquisitor's influence now that he had set up the network for the man, but the man had very very forcefully reminded me of what he had signed up to, during the four hour psychic torture session that the man personally inflicted upon me to ensure that I knew my place from now on.

It had taken almost a month for me to completely recover from my ordeal, and with the threat of Elihath doing the same to Serah if he tried to back out again I was very keen to stay on the man's good side from there on in.

"With the man's resources and ability to make my opponent's dark secrets appear at the best possible moment, it was no surprise that I quickly shot up the ranks. Of course, my rise meant leaving a lot of my past behind me, either out of prudence or because they couldn't deal with me lying with them anymore..." Serah's furious and tear stained face as she stormed from his junior administrator's office after confronting me about the dark dreams she had been having as well as the fact he was hiding things from her came to the forefront of my mind.

Deciding there had been enough of an Inquisition into my past for the moment, I decided to try and bring the topic back to the terrifying alien fleet that was bearing down upon us, as well as trying to find out what terrifying secrets were involving the Inquisition of all things.

"But if you are satisfied for the moment with my loyalty Inquisitor then perhaps we should return to the main matter at hand?" It took a moment but the Inquisitor nodded and stood once more, her face far more serious than it had been during her 'seductress' routine.

"Yes, I suppose it is, Tarkan, set up the data on the screen and then we can brief the Governor. Serah!" The woman's imperious calling of her name had Serah bowing in front of her again in a moment, the stiffness of her form an obvious sign that Serah was expecting further punishment. Instead the Inquisitor glanced over me before speaking once more.

"As of right now, you are seconded to protecting the Vice-Governors life above all else, including protecting me or your own life." Serah's eyes shot up in shock and she wasn't the only one, I think everyone in the room was wondering why a Inquisitor would issue such a weird command, but after a moment of silence it became clear that the Inquisitor was not going to extrapolate any further and so Serah nodded a little uncertainly.

"As you command mistress, shall I shadow him constantly then or just when we are not required by a mission?" Obviously not the question that Serah had wanted to ask, but it was a pertinent one nevertheless, the Inquisitor chuckling to herself for a moment before answering.

"Good, you are learning. I wish for you to remain with him at all times Serah, you will be our contact for him until we finish the mission. You are also not to let the past affect your work, understood?" Which type of history she was talking about I wasn't sure, but the vindicare Tarkan spoke for the first time since I had 'met' him, so I didn't get the chance to ask.

"It is set up mistress, I will sweep the room to make sure there are no listening devices that we might have missed on the first check." The Vindicare rushed off to the side of the room, checking the walls and floors with practiced ease even as Ios looked around before shaking his head.

"No life forms detected within 50 feet of this room Inquisitor, the menace has either not infiltrated the upper layers of the hive or they are deliberately keeping their distance like the cowards all xenos are." With a nod from the Vindicare a minute later that there were no electronic bugs to be concerned with, the Inquisitor walked up to the holo projector and typed away for a moment, the image shifting sharply to what was obviously an Imperial guard helmet feed.

"I would prepare yourself governor, what you will see next is not for the faint hearted." At the Inquisitor's words the video began to play and I very quickly got the idea that the feed was of the storming of a supposed cultist stronghold. As the guardsmen forced their way through the outer gates of the compound, something caught my eye along the top of the feed, a shape moving in the shadows above the gatehouse as the guardsmen started to move into the compound.

A moment later the shape jumped down amongst the second squad of guardsmen to enter the gate and I felt the cold chill of fear down my spine as the monstrous creature tore twelve humans apart in as many seconds, screeching as concentrated fire from the remaining guardsmen tore and burnt the flesh from its bones, managing to cross almost half the distance between it and the nearest squad before it was brought down by the weight of fire.

Just as I thought that might be the worst of it over with, there was the sounds of screaming from off camera, the image swiveling to where the guard had been set up for the attack, a dozen more of the creatures tearing into the heavy weapons squads with impunity.

Whatever these things were, they were vicious, stealthy, intelligent enough to plan a diversion as well as an ambush. But above all I thought as one of the six armed creatures leapt at the camera before it cut off into static, if these are the kind of creatures that are infiltrating the path of this hive fleet, how powerful were the creatures coming in the main body of the attack?


	4. Next Steps

"The Ordos Xenos have classified this particular Tyranid subspecies as Genestealers, a crude and rather literal name, but one that fits this monstrosity well." The Inquisitor spoke with the cold edge of hatred in her voice even as the holo vid cycled through 2 more incidents including one of what seemed to be a space marine's feed, the superhuman warrior gunning down two of these genestealers before the image froze on the last genestealer even as it's claws slammed into the space marines armour.

"They are faster, stronger and more cunning than most normal humans, even space marines struggle to fight them more than one on one without open ground and terminator armour as you can see here. Despite their impressive combat capabilities, the real reason that my party is here is because these creatures are capable of something far worse than merely killing those before them..." That sounded ominous I thought as Tarkan spent a moment typing away at the screen before several pictures of human abominations appeared, each slowly looking more and more like a cross between a human and one of the genestealers.

"They are capable of infecting humans with some kind of neural parasite, turning the Emperor's servants into their own slaves. These infected are capable of acting almost entirely naturally as far as we can tell, though as the infection spreads both throughout the populace and through the infected offspring you can see that their heresy is much harder to hide. So they will tend to form cults or isolated organisations within society, pulling in men of power and influence by pretending a zealous religious code or Emperor's word is driving the sect's plans." And once those men of power joined they were probably quickly infected as well I thought dryly.

Cults and Sects were not news, every spire had groups worshipping the Emperor in a hundred different ways. Whilst not following the official Ecclesiarchy dogma to try and root out these groups just for a minor difference in their worship was something only the truly fanatical were prepared to try. That some of these groups were covers for heretical purposes was also more commonplace that I would like, my agents and those of the other groups were lucky if only three or four of those were found a year.

"So you think there are at least one group of these genestealers here and they will be trying to infiltrate our command structure before this hive fleet arrives?" I was already reviewing all the information I had on cults in the city, if these things could infect those that joined it was the ones that my agents said were no threat whatsoever that I was most interested in.

In addition, the first thing to be checked were my personal guard, as they knew the whole plan they were the biggest risk by far in terms of an information leak right now, then those that had been at the meeting. The Inquisitor nodded approvingly and gestured for me to continue, thankfully she seemed prepared to let me ruminate over what she had just told me and provide my expert view on the planet. A thought struck me as I looked at the images once more and a question came to my mind.

"You said that these crossbreeds were the result of offspring by the infected. Do they become more human with each level of breeding or more alien? Because if it is they become more human then we will need to be looking back decades if not centuries regarding your cult theory." It was at this point the Inquisitor looked a little unsure for the first time, before Ios spoke up.

"We do not know enough to be able to say one way or another, in many cases the Imperial forces on these worlds thought them to be simple heretics until it was far too late and by the time Inquisitorial forces arrived it was a fight to simply retreat off planet after landing and finding the infection had fully taken over. My chapter were the first to encounter the hive fleet and survive to report back, even we were unable to do anything but deal with the first scouts. The chapter is currently refitting before we enter the conflict with the Xenos again." So no information one way or another, disappointing but almost expected.

"Well in which case, let us deal with the most pertinent targets right now, which are my Guard and Admiral Quarrus, as they know the most about the plan. Is that acceptable for now Inquisitor?" After a moment's pause the Inquisitor nodded.

"It will do as a start but I think we will need to progress quickly from there. I will have the rest of my acolytes move our ship to your personal hangar here so that we can fortify this place fully." It wasn't a request but it wasn't like I was going to say no to having more uninfected people around.

"Tarkan, I want the schematics of this place checked and sensors put at every vent, water pipe and sewage tunnel leading into or out of this building. Ios, contact your brothers, I will need more than just a single space marine if there is a genestealer infestation here." The two men nodded and quickly moved off towards the door whilst Serah activated her communicator, obviously to contact their ship with the new instructions. Feeling a lot more at ease now that I didn't have various weapons being levelled at me, I felt the need to try and act a little more normally even if I didn't exactly feel it.

"So Inquisitor, shall I show you round the building? I think that you will be impressed with the set up here and it would allow you to work out which rooms are most suitable for your divine work in ensuring our preparations against the oncoming fleet are up to the Emperor's standards." She twitched an eyebrow in my direction but otherwise didn't rise to the bait, merely nodding sharply and waving me towards the door...

*Line Break*

Twelve acolytes and a space marine were now in one of the largest conference rooms of the administration, setting up various pieces of tech that they had unloaded from their large, black and well armed transport ship. It was a surprisingly well organised operation given rather chaotic layout of the tech, each acolyte knowing their task and hurriedly flitting from one machine to another.

Whilst the acolytes were doing that, the Inquisitor had revealed she had brought 4 other psykers with her, a dangerous number in my mind, but that was as much my distaste of the psychic arts and the risks associated with them as much as anything else. These psykers were currently checking my guards and had already outed one of them as a chaos cultist, the man summarily executed before he probably even realised he had been discovered.

Thankfully none of his other men seemed to be risks and the cell had been highlighted to be dealt with, meaning that I could breathe a little easier and also bring more manpower to our cause. Whilst I didn't reveal the true depth of the danger at hand, I decided over the course of my speech to play a card from the Governor's rulebook and told all of them to fetch their families and bring them here as well.

Then I could lock the building down to normal human traffic, whilst the families would not appreciate the restriction at first, once they were screened it would make a lot more sense and I doubted I would get any trouble. The Inquisitor seemed to want to disagree, no doubt wanting to focus on the nobles and other chiefs who might be infected, but we needed a powerbase we could trust to strike from and she did not have enough people for us to secure a base and carry out operations.

Luckily, she seemed to trust me, for the moment at least, when the shit truly hit the fan that would change no doubt. But we would deal with that particular Ork in the corner of the room when we got to it, for now, I just had to hope that we weren't already too late...

**A/N: Nice short chapter just to get this story moving once more. Let me know what you guys think...**


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